Despite the abundance of eye and face shields in the art, there is still room for a simple, light-weight and convenient shield especially adapted for use by medical personnel. Prior art shields, designed mainly for use in industry and sports, are found to be too cumbersome in use and over-complicated in design, especially in conditions in which ready separation of the structure is required for such purposes as sterilization, replacement of parts and the like.
According to the present invention an improved shield is provided, having relatively few parts and devoid of fasteners and like attachment structures such as screws, rivets, etc. The few parts are easily separated for ease and convenience in sterilization of the parts and especially by different sterilization procedures compatible with the different materials involved in the make-up of the shield. The transparent screen, for example, is separable from the carrying frame and the fabric or like headband is likewise separable from the frame.
It is a feature of the invention that the hinge for the pivotal mounting of the protective screen is relatively far forward rather than being disposed to the rear as in the prior art. This enables positioning of the screen without leaving wide gaps between the screen and its mounting means. Thus protection is afforded throughout a wide range of angular movement of the screen. A further feature resides in the provision on the frontal part of laterally oppositely extending wings for receiving pockets on the headband, thus enabling removable mounting of the headband. The frontal part further includes a forward ledge or shelf configured to accommodate the brow of the wearer. This shelf adds strength and stability to the fore part of the shield and establishes a base for the hinged mounting of the protective screen. The wings for receiving the headband are formed in such manner as to be flexible for brow conformance, and this is achieved by providing slots or spaces between the wings and ledge, leaving the ledge relatively rigid. The manner of attaching the headband to the wings results in use of the headband material to substantially seal the spaces between the wings and ledge and thus adds to the protection afforded from above the shield.